I'm back today with another post about my trip to Hong Kong. I only spent a few days there so I had to plan every day very carefully so I could do most of the things I wanted to. One of the things I really wanted to do there was visit Victoria Peak. It's funny but I first found out about this place in the game Sleeping Dogs. I used to drive up there and relax after a stressful mission.
It seems that out of the days I was in Hong Kong I chose the worst one to visit the peak. I still decided to go though and it was awesome. You can take a bus up there, drive yourself or take a tram. I decided to take the bus up and then take the tram down. I noticed half way up that it was so foggy that day and I would probably not be able to see anything and I was right. Here are some of the photos I took.
As you can see it was very foggy and this is the good side. The other side where you can actually see the city was way worse. You couldn't see anything but white. In a way it felt cool since it was like you were in Skypiea or something lol. Not a great day for taking photos of the view though.
I still thought some of the photos turned out kind of cool though and wanted to share them either way. There are many paths up here that you can walk and the main one is actually quite long too. Would be a cool place to go for a hike every now and then if you live in Hong Kong. I did take quite a lot of photos but it seemed kind of pointless to post a ton of foggy photos of trees. So let's move on to the tram ride down and then to the next day.
Off to Macau
The next day I decided to go on a day trip to Macau. As you might already know, Macau is the other special administrative region of China. It used to belong to the Portuguese for a long time and a lot of that influence still remains there until this day. In my experience no one really speaks Portuguese, which is sad because it would have helped me a lot. However all the signs are in both Chinese and Portuguese and even on the public transport they will announce all the stops in both languages. If you've ever been to Portugal you will also notice that a lot of the buildings look very similar.
I decided to walk to one of the main tourist spots of the city, the Ruins of São Paulo. It was quite a nice walk and after having lived in Portugal for a while, it definitely felt kind of odd. Just seeing all the signs in Chinese and Portuguese already made it interesting.
It was difficult to get a good photo since the place was packed with tourists. Keep that in mind as we move on haha.
Mater Dei indeed.
So after that I walked up to the Fortaleza do Monte aka the Mount Fortress or Monte Forte. It was also very crowded but I wasn't going to let that stop me since I don't think I'll be visiting again any time soon. It was a nice place and I always liked walking around old forts and ruins.
It's a nice place I definitely recommend visiting if you are in the area but also insanely crowded and every photo you try to take will be full of people and their kids. So instead I just took photos of the views from the fort. I didn't realize from arriving at the port that a lot of Macau looks kind of slummy compared to the other areas where the casinos are but there is quite a difference as you can see in this next photo.
As you might already know, Macau is a top destination for gambling and is often referred to as the Las Vegas of the East. Although it's actually much more popular and Macau casino's reported three times more revenue than Las Vegas a couple years ago. Let's just say that gambling here is HUGE.
This is one of the most popular hotel/casino in Macau called the Grand Lisboa. It's a beautiful building and it stands out from anywhere on the island. I had a great time there and even though I am not that into gambling, I decided to go and try my luck before my ferry was ready to take me back. Finding a blackjack table is not easy between the hundreds of Baccarat tables but in the end I found one and I killed it.
That was the end of my trip to Macau and I had an amazing time. The ferry takes only around an hour and you get to ride on a jetfoil which is really cool since you move very fast through the water. After that I was so exhausted that I went straight to the hotel and fell asleep. The last two days were saved for something I had never done before and I don't even really know why I decided to go but it was cool either way and you'll get to hear more about that next time. So I'll see you then!
Let me know what you think about my trip in the comments below.
Peace, Straw